Dalton - 8/26/13 email

The Switzerland of Peru

Hola familia!

Ok, I’m hoping for the internet access to come back up, but for now, I’m using Microsoft Palabra.  Just kidding—it’s still called Microsoft Word here.

Anyway, important piece of information:  There’s a documentary that I think is called Don’t Drive Here. (I haven’t managed to find the quotation marks yet, just the parentheses.)  Anyway, I think it’s done by the Discovery Channel, and it’s about an American guy driving in Lima.  I can’t watch it, so that’s why I have you all.   It sounds hysterical, at least to me.  Record it, treasure it, show it to me in 18 months.

Fun thing I learned that Dad might like:  Our mission boundaries recently changed, and now we actually have a pretty zone in the mission now:  Huaraz.  Everyone calls it the Switzerland of Peru, because there are a lot of snowy mountains and women with a lot of armpit hair.

Give Daryl a hug from me, whether he remembers me or not.  [A friend of ours, Daryl Taufa’asau, just got baptized.]

Also, there was a multi-mission conference this Saturday with Elder Grow and Elder Callister.  We heard loud and clear the message:  If you’re looking for baptisms, reactivate people.  Teach them the lessons as though this was their first time with the missionaries.  Get them converted over again.  Then ask for referrals, because we are missionaries, not home teachers.  They promised that we’ll find more success that way, even in terms of baptisms.  Elder Grow asked a question that can’t leave me:  “Who will you depend on to rescue your converts that turned inactive?”  (I also just found the quotation marks.  Shift and 2 at the same time.)

I have to trust it.  On Saturday, we found a less-active man who has forgotten essentially everything and turned evangelical.  I reacted completely differently this time.  I showed him the ward directory and told him, “Look, there are hundreds of members that we could have visited, but we felt inspired to visit you.  I believe it was sent from God.  We would like to visit you again, as though this is your first time with the missionaries.”  He responded enthusiastically.  So, I guess we’ll see what happens this Saturday with him.

Also, Teofilo Ramirez is getting baptized this Sunday!  Finally, a husband and father!  He really is a miracle.  Four months ago, he had a stress breakdown and couldn’t even remember his own name.  The doctors weren’t sure if he would ever recover.  Now that his family got baptized, he has a job and can tell jokes, and understand the lessons better than many investigators.

Anyway, that’s about it for me.  Elder Sarria is awesome.  We are expecting to have a lot more success than there’s been in the past.

Oh yeah, one more joke:

Por que las personas de la playa saludan mas que otras personas?

    Porque alli estan las olas!

Love you!

Elder Johnson